Tag: Nashville Predators

So the trigger was finally pulled. For months Colorado Avalanche GM Joe Sakic sent patiently waiting for the right deal to come along before shipping star centre out of town, and it wouldn’t have done it justice if the trade didn’t happen in a weird way.

Matt Duchene started the game for the Avs against the New York Islanders Sunday night, but as a banged up Blake Comeau was being helped to the locker room, you could see the Number 9 of Duchene sneaking away himself, after most likely being informed he was no longer a member of the team.

Duchene was traded midway through the game. I’m not 100% sure why the trade couldn’t have waited a couple more hours either but the trade got done and Duchene is now a part of the Ottawa Senators organisation.

Now I could go into the story of the Duchene trade saga but that’s been done to death by people far more qualified than myself, instead I’ll first recap the trade and then offer my uneducated opinion on it.

So, Pay attention.

Colorado send Matt Duchene to the Ottawa Senators.

Ottawa send Kyle Turris to the Nashville Predators.

Ottawa also send goalie Andrew Hammond, prospect Shane Bowers, a conditional 2018 first round pick and a 2019 third round pick to Colorado

So essentially Colorado get a potential 1st round pick in 2018 (if Ottawa’s pick is inside the top 10 they can chose to keep it) a second in 2018, a third in 2019 along with Andrew Hammond (G) & Shane Bowers from Ottawa with Vladislav Kamenev and Sam Girard coming over from Nashville and all they give up is one roster player in Duchene.

So as long as you’ve kept up with this three way trade we should be okay going forward.

My first opinion, Kyle Turris wanted more length on his contract than Ottawa would give him so the sensible move for Ottawa is to get something in return. So Ottawa for me have upgraded their current roster, but potentially given up a little too much to do so. However, Turris was unlikely to stay in the Canadian capital past the expiration of his contract.

Apparently he’d agreed on a cash value on an extension, but the Sens wouldn’t go past 4 years on term. So for Turris moving on was always inevitable and the Sens ship him out for a better player.

Shane Bowers was the Sens first round choice in 2017 but by no means the Sens best prospect. They did well to hold onto the likes of Thomas Chabot, Colin White and Logan Brown, so shipping out Bowers isn’t that bad.

He’s currently playing for Boston University where he’s put up 6 points in 10 games as a freshman, so I’d say Bowers is a little while off cracking the NHL, meaning Ottawa haven’t given up a prospect with an immediate impact but more on that could have a big impact down the line.

For a team that was an overtime goal away from the Stanley Cup finals last year, the Sens are a ‘win now’ type of team so that kind of move doesn’t hurt them.

Nor does moving Andrew Hammond. While Hammond may have shown flashes of brilliance during his short NHL career, he’s not quite a starting goalie but could be a great addition to the Avs crease, especially since losing Calvin Pickard to Vegas in the expansion draft.

GM Joe Sakic’s patience may have paid off in more ways than one with this trade, maybe it’s luck but after losing Pickard getting another goalie is a big reward from this trade.

There’s next to no point analysing the draft picks involved because we don’t know who they are.

Having a first round pick, unless it’s guaranteed top 10 means very little unless you’re playing NHL on and Xbox or PS4.

Essentially the difference between trading picks can be so minuscule. If you’re trading for a team like Tampa Bays first round pick you could probably get the same value for Arizona’s second round pick. So there’s little point even discussing it (but I’m sure some will).

The Nashville part of the deal sees Sam Girard come over to Colorado after making the Preds lineup this year, making 5 appearances for the Preds a year after a 75 point season for the QMJHLs Shawinigan Cataractes. It’s yet to be seen if Girard will play any role in the Avs plans this season, but joining a defensive prospect pool that features the likes of Chris Bigras and Nicholas Meloche, it’s clear that Girard will defy his small stature and become a big potential player and possibly the Avs best defensive prospect other than 2017 first rounder Cale Makar.

In Vladislav Kamenev the Avs get themselves a nearly NHL ready forward who’s already in his third season in the AHL.

In his first season in North America after moving from Magnitogorsk in the KHL, Kamenev posted 37 points in 57 games, and also captain the Russian team at the World Juniors to a silver medal.

He followed his rookie AHL season up with a 51 point season which included 2 games for the Preds in the NHL.

Now in his third year, Kamenev already has 8 points through 10 games and is looking like he could be a big part of the San Antonio Rampage this season.

The winners of this trade may not be too clear for a number of seasons, we don’t know who the draft picks turn out to be, so Colorado could come out and be the winners by a country mile once the careers of those extra picks become more apparent.

However, Matt Duchene looks like a winner as he finally gets his move and to a potential contender. He’s a gifted forward who is also a regular for Team Canada as well. He’s just 26-years old and still definitely in his prime so for Duchene this move could see him reach even greater heights in Ottawa than he did in Colorado. For him this is a fantastic move to help him continue to show his brilliance while also contend for a cup.

Kyle Turris looks like a winner as he gets his extension. He agreed $ with the Sens but obviously is looking for security with more length. Apparently the Sens only offered 4-years but he straight away signed a six-year $36 mil deal with the Preds when was traded to them. Turris is 3 time 20+ goal scorer in the NHL, and is coming off a 55 point season that included 27 goals last season for the Sens.

In their playoff run that saw them come within a whisker of the Stanley Cup finals had it not been for a double-overtime goal from Chris Kunitz to down the Senators and send the Pittsburgh Penguins on their way to their second consecutive Stanley Cup.

So with Turris leaving one contender, he goes to an even better contender with the Preds who also come out on top here by not having to lose any of their stud defenceman (and they have enough of them)

By giving up Girard, Kamenev and picks, the Preds keep their core who when healthy, are one of the most deadly teams in the league.

Over the summer they re-signed Ryan Johansen to a huge 8-year $64 mil contract to be their top line centre for some time ahead.

Now adding Turris to their centre core they can put Turris on their second line with Nick Bonino in the middle of the third line much like he did for the Penguins before joining Nashville over the summer.

With the Avs, they hinder their chances at success for the moment but they are a rebuilding team who are not trying to fool anyone into thinking otherwise.

They have young Stars already like Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog. They’re trying to see if they can get anything out of 2012 first overall pick Nail Yakupov (who’s now with his third team) and they have guys like Tyson Jost and Mikko Rantanen cracking their line up. They do have a lot of depth in their system so in a few years they may be one to watch, but GM Sakic can be applauded for his patience in waiting to deal out Duchene in order to get a return that does help them fill the farm in order to reap the rewards.

Just a fun little finishing piece to a pretty weird trade. Duchene’s first game? That’ll be against the Avalanche when the two face off in a back-to-back series as part of the Global Series in Stockholm, Sweden.

It’s never nice to be proven wrong, but whenever it comes to me writing down opinion or prediction I’m used to it. I do Mock Drafts ahead of the NHL Draft each year and I’d hate to see my accuracy record on that. I’ve predicted every first overall pick (this year I’m 100% sure I’ll be wrong) but outside of that I’m usually quite a bit off with some picks.

And I was wrong again with an article I wrote a little over a year ago. During the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs the NHL Draft Lottery took place and the Toronto Maple Leafs retained the first overall pick.

The article I wrote in response was titled “Winning the draft lottery won’t speed up the Leafs rebuild”

With the NHL season drawing ever closer, it’s the perfect time to make bold statements that you’ll regret come the season end in April.

So in true bold statement spirit, here are the rookies I think you should know about going into the season.

The twist though, I will not talk about Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) or Patrik Laine (Winnipeg Jets) because that would just be an easy way to use the word count that I don’t actually have, but it’d also waste your time because i’m sure you know exactly what to expect from these two.

As well as excluding Matthews and Laine, I’ll also exclude guys like Matt Murray (for obvious reasons) and William Nylander (22 games already in the NHL) just to focus on newer guys to the league.

Now that the Colorado Avalanche have a new coach, they can finally focus on their upcoming season which I think should see them pushing for a playoff berth after a two-year absence from the post-season.

Jared Bednar comes in on a three-year deal to lead the Avs after the sudden resignation of Patrick Roy, Bednar comes in after leading the Lake Erie Monsters to the AHL Calder Cup last year. A career AHLer and ECHLer, 44-year old Bednar is making a big jump by taking his first coaching job in the NHL but the timing must be right. Since hanging up his skates in 2002 he’s been in a coaching role straight away taking an assistant role with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays. After five-years as an assistant he was promoted in 2007 to lead the Stingrays and in his second year in charge he captured the Kelly Cup. After that success he went onto the AHL where he’s been ever since.

While there are only four teams left in the NHL playing hockey, the rest are playing golf, I’m going to look at which team is picking where in next month’s draft and tell you who they’re going to pick with almost everything that follows the top three selections being highly inaccurate.

For arguments sake I’ll list the bottom four teams (St. Louis, San Jose, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay) in order of how they finished in the regular season standings, the team with the lowest points of the four will get back 27 for example and the highest will get pick 30.

I released a mock draft of the first 14 selections after the NHL Draft Lottery a few weeks back so you can check that out as well to see how much my selections have changed.

After the 2016 NHL Draft Lottery came to a conclusion with a rare win for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the first 14 teams to select in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft are confirmed so it’s time to start looking at who’s picking who.

If you haven’t heard of Auston Matthews then you probably haven’t really followed Ice Hockey properly for the last year, or you just have very little interest (which is why you’ll have closed the web browser before finishing this paragraph.)

Matthews is the consensus number one pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft in Buffalo this summer, the 18-year old from Arizona took the unusual route of spending his draft year playing professional hockey rather than US or Canadian Junior, joining ZSC Lions where he registered 46 points in 36 regular season games for the Swiss side, proving his incredible abilities against men already.

So there’s been a lot return about this American centre who’ll likely be wearing an NHL sweater next season for whoever wins the draft lottery, but let’s get to know one of his closest competitors to be the number one selection on June 24th.

Since deciding to restart my writing and set up my blog again, I was going to wait until the NHL Draft to do loads of opinion and analysis as hopefully the Edmonton Oilers lose the draft lottery and don’t get a chance at picking Auston Matthews first overall (If they do then expect a piece on the draft lottery) but with the NHL playoffs starting last night I thought I’d turn my attentions to the post-season and look at who I think will win the playoffs.